Day and Age

The Killers new CD came out a few weeks ago. I have listened to it a fair bit and am prepared to release a comprehensive review. So without further adieu:

The Killers: Day and Age

Track 1- Losing Touch

8.5/10

The Killers have a track record of having good opening tracks and this one is no exception. Catchy with blairing saxophones (these come up a few times) and an amazing guitar lead that only shows up at the end. The chorus is pretty dandy as well though this may just because I love the word "Vagabond".

Track 2- Human

7/10

This is the first single off the album. Its alright with catchieness bordering on Somebody Told Me, but then you hear the lyrics which ask the question "Are we human/Or are we dancer?"

Lead Singer Brendan Flowers claims that he doesn't have to make sense. I respectively disagree. Its things like this and saying Sam's Town will be the most important album in 20 years that makes people lose respect for your normally magnificant band.


Track 3- Spaceman

10/10

The first of three crowning moments of awesome on this cd, this is vintage Killers. Catchy, weird (its about alien abduction) and throwing out completely non-sensical bible references this is just fun. More so than Mr. Brightside even which when you think about it was a pretty freaking sad song.

This taking too long to write. I'm gonna cut the foreplay. The cd is really good, by far the best of 2008 an already excellent year for music with albums from Oasis and MGMT. The best three songs are the previously mentioned Spaceman, the 5th track called "A Dustland Fairytale" which sounds like the sequel to "When You Were Young" only with better lyrics. The other truly stand out song on it is the closig song entitled "Goodnight, Travel Well" which actually does not sound like a Killers song at all (much of the album is like this). Its slow, and mournful and about losing loved ones but ends with a true amount of epicness. According to Rolling Stone, the Killers kind of suck. Rolling Stone can blow me.

10/10

Love's A Bitch

I try to keep out of drama most of the time especially if the repercussions could potentially hit close to home. That’s why I am surprised I have had as emotional a reaction to this as I have. But Amores Perros, right? Love’s a bitch.

A friend of mine that I haven’t seen in about 3 and a half years has a blog that I follow. Its not an especially good blog. His writing isn’t exceptional but I follow it because for two 4-week periods during the summers of my sophomore and junior years of high school, he was one of my best friends. We went to acting camp together and I can safely say that he is one of four people I still speak to. For me, bonds like that don’t break especially at a place like acting camp where several of the most important events of my “growing up” phase occurred. Nick is my friend whether I have seen him recently or not.

The girl in question is also quite possibly the worst woman I have ever heard of, including Enriqueta “The Vampire of Barcelona” Marti, a serial killer that bathed in the blood of her child victims.

To set the stage, Nick loves the ladies. A lot. As long as I’ve known him, he’s always been in pursuit of girls more attractive than himself. He’s not terrible looking, but there’s a very distinct birthmark on his face that I once tried to convince him was the result of him running into a burning building to save orphans and puppies. It makes him very unique looking. Mystery of The Pick-up Artist would say that this gives him an avatar of the unknown. I say it’s a little scary and a bit of a turn off, but I digress. He’s been pretty successful with girls in the past which definitely says something for his charm and charisma, even if he looks a little funny and is a bit of a douche. I remember him getting a mildly attractive girl named Jenn at the end of my last year at camp.

Apparently, Nick dated this girl named Liz for a few months and then they broke up. From the pictures I have seen, she resembles a bizarre cross between a grizzly bear, a sperm whale and a human. I have no idea what he saw in her. I think they tried to reconcile (or at least he did) and it didn’t work out, so Nick tried to get her out of his head. Then he found out she cheated on him the summer before, resulting in this post elegantly title “I Hate That Cunt”:

“Liz cheated on me. I hate her so fucking much. I don't care if she sees this. I hope she burns in hell and gets AIDS or an STD. She's going to end up as an alcholic, slut, who's kids hate her, and she'll live in a trailer and end up on Maurie seven times for each of her three kids. I hope she dies a horribly slow and painful death. FUCK YOU LIZ!!! I HATE YOU!!! “

Nick, like 96 percent of the blogging community finds it necessary to share the details of his romantic life in poorly spelt, low grammatical form. I mean, this is just petty. He’s obviously pissed and no one could possibly ever take this seriously. Apparently, I was wrong. On Liz’s blog she writes this response.

“So, my ex posted a blog because one of my friends told him that I cheated on him. And I have to say, this is true. He treated me like shit, and he was a horrible boyfriend. We were fighting almost all of the time, and I couldn't take it anymore. So I went to hangout with my friend Isaiah, and he charmed the pants off me, literally. Well, I got an e-mail from my mom this morning saying that Nick said some horrible things about me. If he was truely over me, it wouldn't have mattered much. The title is simplt put 'I Hate That Cunt':



So basically, that's all the dumbass had to say. I'm supposed to be upset? Hahahah, it's honestly hilarious. Lets see, where to begin. So I'm going to burn in hell and have an STD or AIDS? Hahaha, that's silly. Way to go kiddo. I'm going to be an alcoholic slut whose kids hate her? Honey, I think if anyones kids are going to hate them, it's going to be yours, you're a horrible person. I'm going to live in a trailer? Uhm, dear, look up the statistcs for sociology majors and the job they get, then look up english majors. I'm going to be making 10x more money than you are because I actually have a major that counts. I'm going to end up on Maury? Yeah, and another thing Mr. English Major; check your spelling, otherwise you will be the one that ends up in the trailer.
That's a lovely thing to start off my day with. Don't you think?
Update more later xoxo
Oh, and one more thing: I wouldn't ever take back what happened with Isaiah, because honestly; it was fucking amazing.”


I can not even begin to explain how much this response pissed me off. First of all, could someone please explain to me what the fuck her mom was doing reading her ex boyfriend’s blog? That’s just creepy. While I don’t know whether or not “he treated like shit” or if he was a “terrible boyfriend”, that doesn’t justify her cheating in the slightest. Its not an excuse and she really shouldn’t be trying to use it as one. She should’ve just dumped him if he was that bad to her. Since she didn’t, its safe to assume that 1, he wasn’t that bad to her and 2, she is a chicken-shit.

Liz questions whether or not she is supposed to be upset and calls Nick a dumbass in one fell swoop. Based on her response (reposting his entry and then vigorously insulting him) I am going to say that whether or not she was supposed to be upset, she sure as fuck is. She refers to his incoherent claims of her getting an STD and being a potential alcoholic as “silly”. Truth be told, I find the first one to be within the realm of possibility as she’s kind of a slut. Sleeping with multiple partners tends to increase the chance of this very much. She then goes on to call Nick a “horrible person” though she provides no evidence backing it up, so I guess we’ll just have to take her word for it there despite the fact that she, you know, fucked someone else while they were still dating.

She then goes on a bit of a pointless tirade about how there’s no way in hell she could possibly end up living in a trailer because she is a sociology major. In fact, he has a much more likely chance what with him being an English major. It’s worth noting that they both go to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Liberal Arts meaning extremely trivial majors that are all equally pretty useless unless you have some semblance of talent. Well, I hate to burst Ms. Sociology-Major’s bubble but according to this report by CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/11/pf/college/starting_salaries/index.htm English majors average about 500 dollars more than sociology majors. Incidentally it also sucks to be a psychology major as well as a history major and political science major in terms of financial gain.)

In other words, YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT AND ARE MAKING UP STATISTICS. I wrote that in all capitals because I feel like if she (or her mother) reads this, it gets the point across much better.

Her comebacks continue to be incredibly lame, mostly just repeating what he said in question form and she ends saying that she won’t take back what happened because it was “Amazing”. Woman, you just used the single most repeated cliché in angrily telling a guy you were cheating on them. Congratulations, you win meaningless sex with a liberal arts major!

Nick responds with a somewhat more levelheaded explanation that can be found here http://nickbournesblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/about-what-i-wrote-last-night.html. Its still somewhat incoherent so I’m only going to include the important parts.

On his pissed off post: “I [Nick} feel like while the two of us were dating, I had done everything and anything for her. All I wanted out of our relationship was to be happy. I trusted her, and when you trust someone to be faithful to you and love you, it will hurt if you find out they betrayed your trust, even if you have lost contact with that person, or you're done with them, like I am with Liz.”

On the actual cheating itself: “Good for her, I'm glad she enjoyed it and I hope it was worth ripping my heart out and breaking it in to a thousand pieces for a second time, because that's what learning about it has done to me. I understand that she was unhappy, but I wish that she had broken up with me first, or at least told me that she was so unhappy. After we broke up, she has tried to be friends with me and at one point, even told me that she still had feelings for me and there was even a point in which she wanted to get back together.”

He ends it somewhat eloquently with this: “I just want to say that I know how this probably sounds to people, and I just want to say that I tried to approach it as unbiasedly as possible. Again, I just want to remind you that I'm writing this down so I can express my feelings about this situation. I really don't want this to be blown completely out of proportion”

Okay, awesome. I think, if you cut around the bullshit, this is pretty legitimate. She read this and they shook hands and resolved to forgive each other for their childlike behavior and go back to their lives…

Just kidding. Five hours after writing this and after specifically asking her not to start a blog war, she responds.

“Well, like I said in my previous post, my ex wrote a 'hate blog' about me, which I kind of think he had every right to do. I'll admit right up front that I was the one that was wrong in the situation. I should've broken up with him, however, that's not the case. When I started hanging out with Isaiah again, Nick and I had got into a fight because of some traveling arrangements that were irritating and I had just had enough. My mom can vouch for what I'm about to say; I talked about breaking up with Nick for a while, but I felt guilty because of what he used to tell me when I said that I wanted to break up when we were first having some problems. He's most likely going to say that this isn't true, but he got his chance to vent it out. We were too different. I think we both know that now. He's content in his perfect bubble of a world with his three friends, and never wants to meet anyone else. I'm so far from that. I love people, hence why I switched my major to sociology. I just can't handle someone who's negative most of the time, it was taking a toll. He was a good boyfriend for the majority of our relationship, but the bad seemed to outweigh the good in my mind and the flaws I fell in love with just seemed to become more and more apparent each day. I'm sorry if I 'tore his heart out', but like I said, I don't regret it. Call that a bitch move on my part, but I would never take it back.”

She says that she should’ve broken up with him but then in the same sentence says “that’s not the case”. What? Is she saying that isn’t what happened or that she really shouldn’t have broken up with him? I’m guessing the latter but really it could go either way. She then uses her mommy as proof against Nick. What are you, 12? She then says Nick made her feel guilty but won’t say how. I can only imagine how this conversation went down…

Her: "I think we should break up."
Him: "But I don't want to break up! I love you."
Her: *ego stroked* "Heh. Yeah, I don't think we should break up either. Say something nice about me."

Please stop, woman, you’re contradicting yourself left-and-right. The flaws you fell in love with became more apparent? What the fuck does that mean? This is doing nothing for your case. Holy shit this bitch is full of herself. And she could seriously benefit from some English classes. Her writing is atrocious. Though I guess it would keep her from making any money in the future, right?

I love this line: “He's content in his perfect bubble of a world with his three friends, and never wants to meet anyone else. I'm so far from that. I love people, hence why I switched my major to sociology. I just can't handle someone who's negative most of the time, it was taking a toll.” Way to go there, slugger. Your reasoning for a major change is laughable at best. That’s like saying “I love drugs which is why I became a bio major”. Sociology is a joke major. After taking several classes in it, I have more respect for Creative Writing Majors (which is saying something as creative writing is something of a joke). And she’s putting him down for English…

Anyway, she continues:

“Now, my ex also stated that he thinks my kids will hate me. To me, that honestly pisses me off, because that just shows me that he never really knew me at all. I honestly love kids. Although I don't have children, I know for a fact that I'd be a good mom. I don't mean to brag or talk myself up, but I mean, has he ever even seen me with my niece? She's my absolute world. Granted, that it's not the same as having your own child but whenever I'm around her, I feel alive. Seeing her smile brightens up my world and I do everything to make that little girl happy. Besides, if I'm anything like my mother, I know I'll be a great mom, because with my mother and step-father guiding me, I will support my kids reguardless of what they want to do in life. I will love then unconditionally.”

Awful grammar aside, this is a retarded point. It reads like the sort of thing a fourth grader answers when asked what they want to be when they grow up. At the very best, it sounds like a half-assed graduation speech. I feel bad for her niece, being used in a petty flame war with an ex. I don’t think her mom is a particularly good role model either considering she apparently stalks the blog of her daughters ex boyfriend. Her behavior really doesn’t indicate anything positive towards her being a good guardian. She apparently drinks, does drugs and has sex with multiple people. While I have never actually met her she certainly comes off as a worthless slut. I would definitely call child services on her ass.
Here is where she goes off the deep end. I’m gonna cut this into pieces to show why this is a terrible point.

“My ex has so kindly said that I am also an 'alcoholic slut'. To me, that makes my blood boil, and I know he said most of the things to get under my skin, and it pisses me off that this one actually did.”

Actually everything he’s said to her has gotten under her skin, hence not one but TWO responses.
“First of all, how dare you say things like that when you know what I think about alcoholism. I'd like to say that someone I'm very close to is basically drinking himself into oblivion, and it fucking kills me everyday. Do you know what its like to have to watch someone you love slowly die in front of your eyes in a preventable situation?”

If its so preventable why don’t you get off your ass and do something about it? Lazy bitch… Does anyone else find it funny that she questions his daring to suggest that she has a substance abuse problem, as though that were out of line, but taking another dude's dick and rubbing it in his face is not? Let's see if the Sociology major knows the phrase "cognitive dissonance".

“Do you know what it's like to wake up every morning wondering if today is the day that they leave your life for good? Do you know what it's like to feel completely helpless but feel as though you're at fault for the bottle that's attached to their hand because you can't do anything to stop it?”

Make up your fucking mind. You say its preventable and then you say you can’t do anything to stop it. I also notice she leaves this person anonymous, but still identifies other people 'relevant' to her argument (her niece, her mother, Isaiah). Perhaps this alcoholic is fictional?

“No, I don't think you do. I've been to AA meetings to support a recovered alcoholic of over 20 years and I've heard the stories of the people that have pulled themselves out of the gutter. Stories about how alcoholism basically left them sitting in their car with the taste of a .45 in their mouth, ready to pull the trigger.”

That’s not relevant. None of those last few points are. She’s denying it so fiercely. The only reason I could see it getting under her skin is because she subconsciously knows she has a problem. Acceptance is the first step!

“How the hell in your mind could you ever think that I want to end up like that? You make me seem as though I wake up every morning and need a drink. THAT is alcoholism. When you can't function without it. I'm pretty sure that I haven't had a drop of alcohol in over a month and a half, and if I were an alcoholic I would have the delirium tremens [DT's].”

Looks like somebody just wikipedia’d DT's to sound smart. Not all alcoholics are the same. Binge drinkers for instance drink incredibly large amounts in short periods of time. This is a form of alcoholism that Ben Affleck famously suffered from. Withdrawal symptoms vary in different people as well. This is not the first time she’s gotten her statistics wrong. She really needs to shut the fuck up and stop trying to scientifically prove him wrong. Really its like killing someone and then saying “I CAN’T POSSIBLY BE THE KILLER! I WATCHED MY BEST FRIEND DIE IN A MUGGING! I KNOW ABOUT HOW MUCH PAIN MURDERING SOMEONE CAUSES THEREFORE THERE IS NO WAY I COULD POSSIBLY EVER KILL SOMEONE! I AM SMART!”

“ So please, do research if you're going to verbally bash me about a subject that I know more about than you do.”

She says after getting all her facts wrong in all three sentences prior to this one.

“Besides, I'm going to be a Drug Rehabilitation Counselor [ well, I hope to be one ] and I'm pretty sure if I wanted to be an alcoholic, I couldn't achieve my dream and not only that, I would probably not be in college anymore or failing all of my classes. I don't need alcohol OR drugs to numb myself, I wish I could say the same for you though.”

Ooooh. I see what you did there! You aren’t the alcoholic, he is! It all makes sense now. The logic is all there in your cliché ridden closing statement! Shit, that’s a pretty pathetic dream. Drug Rehabilitation Counselor; can you imagine hearing a kindergartener tell you that that is what they want to be when they grow up? This is just sad. Though to be fair, if I were as annoying and stupid as she is, I'd want to spend all my time around people more pathetic than I am, too. Or drink myself to death. It could really go either way.

So I thought this was her closing statement but I was sadly mistaken. Now she really lets it all out.

“I don't mean any of this blog to sound malicious. Honestly, I don't. I'm past that, in fact, I just got rid of people I considered to be my friends because they had of course, been bashing me. I don't need anyone's shit anymore.”

You know when multiple people are telling me I have a problem, I tend to believe that there might be something wrong. I definitely don’t just completely cut myself off from them. I guess they really weren’t your friends then if it was so easy for you to cut them off. Worst friend ever.

“ I'd like to say, what they said didn't irritate me, but it did. I don't like the fact that when I have one breakdown because of things that are piling up that half of you couldn't even fathom, I get called 'emo'. By someone who shouldn't even be talking, honestly. I don't understand it.”

ITS CALLED STRESS. ITS CALLED BEING IN COLLEGE. EVERYONE HAS TO DEAL WITH IT. NO ONE LIKES OTHER PEOPLE BITCHING TO THEM ABOUT IT. SHUT THE HELL UP. Seriously, “half of you couldn’t even fathom?” Unless Adolf Hitler rose from the dead, raped and murdered your entire family and then made you watch it on video while blasting Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T’s (happened to a friend of mine), I’m pretty sure we can “fathom” it. I love it. Fathom sounds so dramatic…

"Out of all the time that these people have known me, I have never once had a serious breakdown like the one I had the other night"

Here, she begins by complementing her own mental strength by saying that she has managed to avoid a serious breakdown for all the time “they” have known her. Because she qualifies it as a serious breakdown, we can come to the conclusions that either A) she has had many minor breakdowns, and she doesn't seem to think that speaks to her character since she, you know, regards any assumption of her falling into misfortune as "silly," or B) she has had other breakdowns of this caliber, and just redefined or ignored them. It might be worth going through her blog to see if this incident even stands out but frankly I don’t feel like torturing myself like that.

"Then I see that they're laughing at me, calling me emo?"

She complains that people are mocking her breakdown. I'm not really sure what to say to that. They might have been. I sure am. But we don't have any details on this breakdown. This confuses the everloving fuck out of me, because it seems so out of place. Her whole blog to this point has been about how she is over Nick and how she is a pillar of indomitable feminine whatever, just like all other women of dubious worth do. Despite this, she admits to a breakdown apropos of nothing. I mean, who mentioned this? Where did this come from? Was this breakdown a result of Nick's blog? If it was, then she is either A) completely in love with him, and therefore an idiot for treating him how she did, B) so in love with her own misery she'll fall into a "serious breakdown" the likes of which she has supposedly never had since knowing "these people" or C) lying and/or crazy, blowing every little bit of shit out of proportion so she can have her drama. Please note, these are not mutually exclusive.

Also bear in mind, she has not and does not specify who "these people" are. Most likely, they are acquaintances of hers who noticed her "breakdown" and, perhaps while comforting her and feeding into her narcissistic oppression fantasies, made a joke to relieve tension which to used as fuel for her own paranoid delusions. That, or these onlookers were openly hostile, ambivalent or simply lulzy peers that she made the mistake of opening up to, and they tore her a new asshole. Again, it could really go either way.

She continues:

"I know that most of them were mad at me that were doing it, but the thing is, I don't believe that because you have one fucking moment of weakness, you get verbally bashed because you can't take it anymore."

Well, yes. She is, as previously noted a dumb whore. Since she doesn't say why "they" were mad at her, I can only assume it was her fault and, as she is clearly won’t to do, she simply ignored her faults in her own mind to make her the innocent victim. Here, she is portraying herself as a further victim of "their" bullying.

Well, sometimes, one moment of weakness means exactly that. They say that the you under stress is the real you, after all. I know what she's saying, but I have no idea what she's talking about. Here she is excusing her breakdown, and further lamenting that she had to suffer for her poor behavior. I think, from context, she's referring to a binge she had, and all the references to a breakdown were to excuse her alcoholic tendencies as a one-time event. If that's the case, it could still very well be an indication of the first step towards alcoholism; turning to the bottle to solve your problems is a good sign of that.
Of course, a single time getting drunk when you're upset doesn't makes you an alcoholic, but the way she talks about alcohol does sound like someone denying their own problem. The unnamed person she "is very close to" is an alcoholic, and needs to admit to their problem and fix their lives. The writer of this blog? Nah, she's cool, no problem. She just turns to alcohol when she's upset.

“I recall majority of the time I had known this person, they would mope around the place, however, I'd mope too if I got in trouble for what they got in trouble for. It's disgusting. So you know what, I really have no problem washing my hands of it.”

Okay, she’s completely lost me at this point. Lets take a look at what is her closing paragraph (this time I’m sure of it):

“I know who I am, and what I'm about. Some of the perceptions of me have been fogged recently by the thoughts and opinions of others. I couldn't care less anymore. It irritated me at the time, but I had a lot of time to think.”
Of course, she still does care which is why she wrote this massive, incoherent pile of pig shit.

“ When you have your back against the wall and everyone attacking you, you get some time to reevaluate yourself. I've come up with the following: I'm a good person at heart. I've made some mistakes that I'm not proud of, but no one is perfect. I'm not going to live my life as the shell of the person that I was a few years ago.”

I don’t see where she’s getting this “good person at heart” thing from. I mean it’s a good thing to have a positive self image but the metaphoric picture she is painting says quite the opposite. I think it would be a better idea for her to develop a realistic self perception so that maybe she could realize just how much she sucks and possibly stop being such a bitch.

“I'd let everything get to me, but now, nothing can touch me on the level that I'm at. I'm a strong person. I've dealt with things that most of my friends wouldn't believe, and honestly, I wouldn't take any of those back. I'm a fighter, I will never back down, I will never give in, I will never relent.”

You know who else can't be touched at their level? Coke addicts. Sure you don't have a problem? And doesn’t that last part sound like something else from a graduation speech? One of those inspirational quotes that everyone says but no one really believes (or remembers 30 seconds after hearing it for that matter). I’m also reminded of that Christina Agulara song where she says basically the same thing only more poetically. You know you’re in trouble when the chick who sang Genie In A Bottle can speak better than you. Also, no. No, you're not a fighter. A fighter is someone who can fight. If you ever fought a fighter, you'd probably cry about how unfair the fight was, because they had all that fancy training and muscle and they should have taken it easy on you.

To Close she writes:

“It's me against the world, and I'm facing it with everything I have in me. I'm not afraid.”

Okay, I get it, you're persistent. I don't care. Nobody mentioned your lack of persistence. Nobody said you ever gave up (though if Nick actually felt like it, I’d be willing to bet he could make a good case for it). The closest thing on the table here is that you gave it up to someone who wasn't your boyfriend. Your accusations from Nick's post include you being a slut, an addict, and a bitch, not to mention a complete and utter dunce. Nobody has even thought to call you a quitter. Though after actually thinking about it I am pretty sure that you probably are one, so let's just come right out and say it, you're a quitter. I am calling you out on that point, because it reads more like you're trying to convince yourself than to convince anyone trolling your blog. Everything I know of you leads me to the conclusion that you're a quitter…. Quitter.

Nick, you can do better than this whore. Please stop thinking about her. Getting cheated on sucks, but this is just about the worst person in the world and we both know you can do better than her.

Well At Least There's That

I had a very peculiar thought just a few moments ago. Its about 1:10 in the morning and my attempts at relatively early sleep have been foiled by a roommate who keeps his reading lamp less then six feet away from my head and can't type without it on. Said peculiar thought is that no matter how irritating he may be, eventually he will be dead. There is no way around it. Eventually, he will die and will never be able to annoy anyone again. The thought is strange for two reasons. One, its an awfully harsh way to look at an annoyance no matter how frustrating it is and two, I just realized that I cannot imagine my own death.

Don't misunderstand. I think a lot about death, more than you'd probably expect. Actually, I think its pretty human to think about about death in the same way we think about anything else that we don't really understand. I think of ways I could die, I think of other people dying, but for whatever reason I simply cannot imagine myself dead. Not existing is out of the realm of my imagination.

Once again I can not sleep.

Stress

In all semblances of the term, I am worn out. In both body and mind I am exhausted. We have break soon. I will need it. I have a final Tuesday in abnormal psych, but nothing tomorrow. I have a bio exam on that day as well. I will be studying just about all of tomorrow. After that I have a Social Psych test followed by the final for that class the next Tuesday. My bio and sociology finals are question marks but I know I have them. Soc is the only class I have a real shot at an A in. I've gotten consecutive 87s and perfect attendance. All I need is another good showing.

The other 3 I'm passing but it gets a bit complicated, varying from mid to high Cs. Hopefully I can pull up above the 3.0 barrier this semester but that's looking kind of unlikely... So long NYU!

Movies going along at a turtle like pace but we all remember how that race ended... I hate Aesop. I don't have the patience for this job.

Aint Got Nothing

I really hate that expression "I'm over it". Its the worst when used to describe a sour relationship, as if the other person is somehow a disease. I mean I guess if said person gave them a curable STD then it might be appropriate. Otherwise its just obnoxious.

In other news, I am sick and have thirteen days to go until break. I should probably be sleeping but unfortunately my roommate has his speakers blaring and there is a desk lamp shining in my face. I really fucked up with the roommate agreement this semester... Its rap music. He's switched from techno. Earlier it was country which was slightly more tolerable.

I wish I found my life more interesting. That way I'd have a bit more to write about but really, I haven't done anything in the last month or so that warrants interest other than maybe filming for a little while.

The Home Stretch Begins

In maybe fourteen hours, I'll be back at Umass in my cramped little room thinking about how just that morning I was asleep in my comfortable bed in my regularly heated house. That's how it usually goes after I come back to school from a break. This is a little easier than last year what with not having to take a six hour plane ride to do it, but the trend is consistent. At some point tomorrow I will think this.

Thanksgiving Break 2008 was far less eventful than '07. For one I didn't spend Thanksgiving day hungover. Nope. This year I spent it mostly sober with my parents and even watched major league before playing some brawl with Steff and reminiscing through the high school year book. It was noted that we always seem to do this when she comes over. This is of course 100 percent true. Nostalgia is addictive.

There was no drinking at all, actually. Probably a good thing considering last years disaster. The biggest event was a movie night at Kevin's house that I dragged Christina to (mostly because it was the only time during the entire break we were both not completely busy).

I watched a lot of movies. Major League, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Iron Man, The Transporter 3, and A Very Brady Sequel (which was fucking sweet) to name a few. All were pretty good. I saw everyone I set out to, some even more than once, and I slept an average of 11 hours a day making it an extremely successful break. I'm a little surprised to be home right now. A year ago, I probably would have gone on some sort of crazy adventure driving around the back roads and highways of New England with Steve. This is likely to happen at some point during the winter but at the moment, the promise of sleep in a warm bed with no annoying snores or breast feeding sounds in the background is far too tempting.

Looking at my computers calendar it would seem that there are 19 days until the semester ends. Hopefully in this time I can move out of my dorm, pass my finals, go holiday shopping, and not completely lose my mind out of stress and frustration.


Here's to the final stretch!

Why Not...

The footage for episode of of the movie is 99 percent shot. We need a phone conversation with Dan and a Wendy and we're done with it. Thank god.

All American Kids is going alright as well. Three episodes in and I like where its going. Hopefully I can actually bring myself to write a full volume.

In other news, my hands are super sweaty and I think I have ringworm.


Entries like these are why I never write when I have nothing to say.

Mind Fucked

There's this web series I used to love in high school called Punks and Nerds. Its exactly what it sounds like. This is one strip the seems especially poignant right now.


http://www.punksandnerds.com/d/0019.html

Mike's description is fantastic.
I won't be sleeping any time soon. Insomnia really doesn't build character, it makes pissed off. Why did my roommate wait until 2:30 in the morning to start his homework? Fuck if I know. My mind's completely wiped. I've gotten about four hours of sleep in the last two days. Not helpful.

Didn't do much today. Finished some psych work and skipped bio out of boredom and exhaustion. Hung out in the room and then went over to Richie's to watch the office, which is funny but not really as good as it gets hyped up. Without Steve Carrel it'd be very forgettable. Hung out with Alyssa for a bit after. I think we watched American Gladiators on ESPN classic. Pretty cool. And now I can't sleep. Fuck.

Just twelve days to go at least.

Thank God I bought Ear Plugs

Two weeks until Thanksgiving.
S'been a weird November.

Someone is moving furniture or something around on the floor above mine. Its really annoying, especially at 2:40 in the morning.

Bandits Advance

My Dad got back from Israel a few days ago. I am now the proud parent of a legit Arab knife and a very stylish necklace with a 1700 year old coin as its center piece.

I also had the single most intense APBA playoff series of my life. Down 2-0 in a series against the best offense in the league, my team came back and won 3 in a row to advance to the semi-finals.

This is the log I kept as this went about. Those of you who don't like baseball, prepare to be bored out of your skulls:

Game 3 Marcum vs Wakefield

Akinori Iwamura homers in the first
Kevin Youkilis, Jeff Kent and Matt Stairs each knock in one in the third

Disaster strikes in the 5th as Kent and Stairs, two of Boston's top players collide and they are forced out of the game. I am suddenly incredibly happy I traded for Tad Iguchi half way through the season.

Raul Ibanez adds another run in the bottom of the fifth forcing former Boston first round pick Marcum out of the game.

Top of the 6th, Brian Mccain and Alfonso Soriano each tap in rbis and knock fan favorite Tim Wakefield out of the game. Brian Shouse manages to get Chris Duncan to hit into a double play, rendering the score in the Bandits favor at this point 5-2.

One inning later, Jose Reyes taps in an RBI single only to be immediately picked off. After a Lance Berkman walk, Albert Pujos (good lord this is a terrifyingly potent offense) smashes a double driving in Berkman. Alex Rodrigeuz steps to the plate. The Bandits bring in 4th round pick J.C. Romero to face him. He whiffs A-Rod. The pick off is costly, but Ouachita Post is within one, the score now 5-4.

Aaron Rowand gives the Bandits a bit of breathing room with a Homer to lead off the bottom of the 7th. Sean Green adds a double on top of that. The score is 7-4.

In the top of the 8th with one out Ouachita Post loads the bases, prompting Boston to go to closer J.J. Putz. He promply strikes out Johnny Damon and Jose Reyes to get out of the inning. He then gets a 1-2-3 9th inning. The Bandits win 7-4 (despite being out-hit 10-11) and at least avoid the sweep. Things look bleak however as two of Boston's key players, Stairs and Kent, are down for the count.


Game 4
Baker vs Penny
The Gabateurs welcome their former teammate with a 3 run homer courtesy of Albert Pujos to start off the third. Brian McCaan adds in a single giving them a 4-0 lead before the Bandits even bat.

Scrappy team that they are, the Bandits pick away and Aaron Rowand knocks in a run making it 4-1. Then in the bottom of the second Sean Green, Aj Pierzynski, and Tad Iguchi all add in one a piece tying it up at 4 a piece.

A stolen base by Ceaser Izterez on a botched hit and run followed by an Akinori Iwamura single gives Boston the 5-4 lead in the bottom of the forth, driving Scott Baker from the game.

Already a brutal series for Boston, Alfonso Soriano goes down for the remainder of the series when he hits the wall going after a Raul Ibanez double. Ibanez comes around and scores two batters later on a Nomar Garciaparra single. Boston leads 6-4.

After cruising since the first, Lance Berkman touches Brad Penny for a two run homer in the top of the seventh, tying the game. After Penny walks Pujos, the Bandits bring in Mariano Rivera to face Arod. Mo strikes him out. Then he strikes out Josh Willingham to end the inning. The game is tied 6-6.

With 2 men in scoring position and 1 out, Jose Reyes robs Nomar Garciaparra of a two run single and doubles off a runner, keeping the game tied and simultaneously enraging every member of Bandits Nation.

In the top of the 9th with Lance Berkman on 2nd, Hideki Okajima gets Albert Pujos to ground out to shortstop.

Bottom of the ninth. With one out Aaron Rowand doubles, prompting Ouachita Post to send in Joel Pinero to pitch to Raul Ibanez. Ibanez singles to center, scoring Rowand.

Bandits win a wild one 7-6. This time they out hit Ouachita Post 16-7.

Game 5 Gallardo vs Lowe

Right now, the Bandits have made a comeback, tying the series at 2 games a team. Gallardo effectively shut down the Bandits in his first start against them. Lowe, not so much. He was tapped for 5 runs and didn't even make it past the 5th. Both teams have lost key players, Soriano for the Gabateurs, Stairs and Kent for the Bandits.

After a somewhat shaky but ultimately harmless first inning for Lowe, Raul Ibanez follows up on his game 4 heroics giving the Bandits a 1-0 lead with a base hit single.

In the top of the third with one out and runners on the corners, Lowe strikes out A-Rod, causing him to be promoted a grade. He then gets Pujos to ground out, ending the inning.

The shut out is broken up in the 4th on a solo homer for Lance Berkman who has really been tearing it up this series. The score is tied 1-1.

Matt Stairs replacement Nomar Garciaparra responds with a homer of his own in the bottom of the inning. This is soon followed up by an Akinori Iwamura rbi single. Both of these feats are put to shame when Aaron Rowand takes a bases loaded fastball over the left field fence for a grand slam giving the Bandits a 7-1 lead.

Ouachita Post gets one back in the top of the 5th on passed ball. The score is 7-2.

Ouachita Post's vicious offense simply refuses to let its team die. Chris Duncan hits a 2-run homer to put the Gabateurs back in the game now only down by three, 7-4.

Aaron Rowand is not impressed and hits a two run homer of his own, his second homer and 6th rbi of the game making it 9-4 after 6.

A-Rod finally comes through the next inning hitting a solo homer. Lowe is lifted from the game for Brian Shouse. Shouse strikes out Berkman leaving the score 9-5.

In the top of the 9th, the Bandits bring in closer J.J. Putz. He once again silences Ouachita Post's potent offense and holds the lead giving Boston a 9-5 victory.

Boston does the improbable and wins the series 3-2 (the 2nd time they've done this in my tenure) despite injuries to 2 key players.

Aaron Rowand is easily the MVP of the series, hitting 4 homers and driving in a whopping 11 runs in 5 games while alomost single handedly winning game 5.

Great series, Ouachita Post.

So what this means is, my team survived the first round, nearly entirely due to my ability to manage the bullpen. Having guys like Putz and Rivera didn't hurt though. I got excited and made a little team poster.





I am awesome.

I Called It

Adam died in a retarded manner. Fuck you, Tim Kring, fuck you. You wasted a perfectly good anti-hero. In fact you wasted one of the only well written characters in the show. I hope you choke. Or at least get fired.

So yeah. I'm bitter. Also, add Mercutio and Laertys to my favorite dead characters list. I don't even get a break with Shakespeare-_-

Tomorrow is Halloween.
I'll be taking my mom out to dinner for her birthday the next day, hopefully after recovering from my inevitable hangover. Then I get to go home for the night which is good as I've barely been sleeping here.

I'm just going to plug this now, read my sister's blog if you have the time (which you clearly do if you are reading mine). She's probably a better writer than I am, though I'm a fair bit funnier.


This is the link: http://anneopines.blogspot.com/

Weird Weekend

For those of you wondering what I was up to Friday night, it was not an extended masturbation session. I had a date. It went well. I don't know where its going right now nor do I know where I want it to go.

The weekend breezed by. Saw a lot of movies. Hated Pride and Glory. The Terminal was decent. Wall-E was somewhere in the middle (sorry pixar fans).

Had a bit of a nervous breakdown sunday. Its been a while since the last one. Like literally the last time this happened was in March when I visited umass and hooked up with a friend from high school (awkwaaaard). I guess I've been getting better at managing it. I just need to get even better than that.

Halloween this weekend. The return of the 3.55 pimp!

Ravings of An Insomniac

Its almost 8 am. It will be well after 8 by the time I finish this.
I didn't sleep.
Not a wink.

I Am Bad Luck

Predictions for Heroes

Adam and Bennett will die.

How do I know this. My favorites always die.

Also

With the reveal of Mr. Petrelli, Adam is pretty expendable. To prove how evil he is, kill the well meaning, likable Adam off.

Bennett wasn't in the future, Claire was pissed at Sylar and Sylar's kid was named after Bennett. With all the drama going on, I think Bennett and Sylar will grow to respect each other but Sylar will unintentionally cause Bennett's death, leading him to feel super guilty.

Ando is already dead. Fuck Hiro. So my big three are screwed. As much as I love Sylar, he's been going downhill since they decided to try to redeem him.

I'm sick of this shit. My favorites die EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME. I'm not even exaggerating:

James Norrington, Obi-Won Kenobi, 355, Jiraya, Gendo Ikari, Nicholas Wolfwood, Spike Speigal, Steve Bushemi in The Big Lebowski, Yami Bakura, Alec Trevelyn, Harry Osborn, Cyclops, Severus Snape, Piccolo, Alex Wilder, The Original Killer, Boromir, Harvey Dent, Rorshach, Bubba (Forest Gump), Tyler Durden, King Leonidas, Jay Gatsby, Agent Smith, Rocco (Boondock Saints)

There are more but this list was getting extensive and I'm pretty tired. How the fuck do I keep picking the losing side?


In a few weeks we'll be able to add Adam and Noah to that list.

Mark my words.

Columbus Day Weekend: Eddie Gets Nostalgic But Doesn't Write About It

Came home for the weekend.
Hung out with Steve, Serge, Solly, Richie and Baker.
Steve may be transferring.
Serge may be the funniest man on the planet.

The next check point is Halloween which is a little under three weeks away. After that, just another few weeks till Thanksgiving. And then winter break.

I had this whole big thing that I wrote here about what I'll remember about Acton as an adult and how scary the concept of "settling down" is to me and how scary it is to think that I may go years in between talking to my closest friends, but I think that's ultimately a kind of pointless thing to go into on a blog. No one wants to read about that and if they do its only to make fun of it. I'm not about to put that kind of personal thing on the internet.

In other news, I played a lot of Brawl today and did not do very well. This could bode poorly for me when certain people come home from college and want to play me. On the off chance you actually read this, I'm looking at you, she-who-put-Ike-in-her-facebook-profile. I don't think I would be able to forgive myself if I lost to the likes of you. And don't even get me started on you, army man. If you can beat me after not touching a wii for 23 weeks, I don't deserve to own one.

Oops, I'm a Racist

Last night, I posted something I wrote a while back on how stupid I find race-based magazines, focusing specifically on something I found called "Realizasian". Said reading can be found here:

http://www.angelfire.com/games5/ehandz/Realizasian.html

The group I posted this on was entitled "Asians Not Brain-Washed By Media". I wanted to get some responses from what I presumed would be like minded people. I was apparently wrong.

I will say this right now, I fucked up.
Badly.

The people on this group are hardcore, borderline hippies. Some immediate responses to it were:

"I will break this down later on, but who exactly has made race a huge deal in our society? I'll give you a hint. Those with the most power and wealth."

Ah, it was the Jews. Got it.

My favorite was from a humorless dick named Gary Huang, who I think is the moderator of the board:

"You seem to just be ignorant of the issues Asian Americans are facing. You see the Master Thread link at the top of the page? I'll paste it here for you:

Master Thread
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2214375888&topic=8703

Read it. If you think Jacky Chan and Jet Li aren't caricatures, Lucy Liu isn't portrayed as a dragon lady 99% of the time in media (or don't know what the term "dragon lady" means), or think the American melting pot society is a good thing, you need to read the posts in that link."


The guy pretty blatantly ignored what I wrote. Or skimmed over it, saw I was talking about Lucy Liu, Jet Li and the American Melting Pot, didn't bother reading my points that explained why I don't think Asians are treated badly in the media, and went off on an irate, defensive tangent. I read some of the master thread and frankly was offended by how incredibly trivial some of the topics were. For instance:


Why Do Manga and Anime Characters Look the Way They Do? (white worship)
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2214375888&topic=3367

"The phenomenon of "Asian Fetish""
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2214375888&topic=2101

Another Uncle Tom Asian American Comedian: Sung Hee Park
http://mit.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2214375888&topic=3771

Asian Women & White Men - What's the Dealio?
http://mit.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2214375888&topic=5361

Essay: 'Why the Joy Luck Club Sucks'
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2214375888&topic=3192


I did not realize that these were the big issues affecting asian americans... Manga, the Joy Luck Club, and asian chicks dating white guys...

There were others, but these were the ones that stood out to me. I noticed that there were several articles about White men dating Asian Women but none about Asian Men dating White women. Because you know, that totally never happens.

Realizing that I wouldn't be able to win an argument against these hypocrites, I left the group.

Minutes later, I got this private message:

"I'm going to tell you this once and once only. If you make another post attacking this group or make another racist thread before having read the master threads, you will be banned. Your lack of positive contributions and ignorant, bigoted posts are unacceptable."

To which I promptly responded:

"I left the group on my own, thanks, Hitler."

I learned my lesson. No matter what the color, gender or age, activists are idiots.

The Pretender

In retrospect, In Search of Emo's was a really terrible idea for a movie. The main reason being that for all my talk about putting them in camps where they will be forced to do manuel labor until death, I really could care less about them. When we decided to actually shoot it, I didn't think I'd be able to be even remotely amusing. As it turns out, I'm pretty good at pretending to hate things. I have claimed on multiple occasions to hate the following:

-Emos
-Ninjas
-Hipsters
-Black People
-Jews
-Poor People
-Women
-Asian Men
-Liberals

The list goes on. How many of these do I actually hate? None of them. I really could care less about any of them. I'll tell you what I really do hate though. Its a type of person that's hard to pinpoint because to actually fully identify them, you need to have some sort of social contact. I like to refer to this person as The Pretender.

I have an honest dislike for this kind of person simply because they are ingenuine, arrogant pieces of shit. The Pretender will constantly overestimate them self. Typically, they are bad at sports, but that's okay because "sports are for losers and after high school is over, they don't matter". Statements like this are common for them. They never apologize and never take responsibility for their own faults. If they do, they will minimize it and blame someone else for the majority. Parents are often a major scapegoat.

The Pretender will 95 percent of the time have a blog. Unlike this one, it is updated on a regular basis, even if the person has nothing interesting or worthwhile to say. On truly slow days they will simply post of picture or video of something they find amusing or ironic.

They will almost always have ridiculously obscure taste in music and movies because liking things that are mainstream would "ruin their individuality".

Okay, I don't think I need to describe them any more. I've known plenty of people like this over the years. Hell, we're all probably guilty of it at one point. When we try to impress someone by listing Sufian Stevens as a favorite singer. Its when someone gets to consumed with being different or more ironic than everyone else that I want to strangle them with their own intestines.

It is almost 4 am. I am going to sleep now.

Theodore: Seducing Korean Immigrants With His Dashing Good Looks

Ran into Jay Park, an acquaintance from high school yesterday with Victor. Despite being Korean, he is working in a Japanese restaurant. I had forgotten he goes to Umass. We talked for a bit and he brought up something that has designated in my mind for some reason. That being that despite liking Americans, he only really sees Koreans these days. I don't get why this seems to happen but its something relatively common on campus. There really aren't very many multiracial couples or groups. I really don't get why Asian kids keep to themselves so much. I've heard its because they feel more comfortable with their own culture, but isn't America a blending of cultures? At college especially, shouldn't they be trying to expand their horizons?

Of course, they never will try to do that. They'll stay in their comfy little world of broken English and bubble tea and probably will marry another Korean and have adorable children that will disappointed them horribly when they perform averagely in high school and run off with a large black man named Theodore. He'll look exactly like this:




And there I go again, completely destroying any valid point I may or may not have had.

Speaking of awesome Asians, Christina is coming this weekend to finish up filming. Then we will party. Hardy.

Heroes Season 3 Starts

The season premier of Heroes was almost entirely what I expected. It was very enjoyable. The thing that put it over the top for me was a two second cameo by Dave Anders, the guy who plays Adam Monroe, villain of season 2 and by far my favorite character. He has no lines and just sort of smirks during a dream sequence in which all the heroes are dead. This gives me great expectations, those basically being that Adam will have a part in this season in one way or another.

Adam was pretty much the only good part of season 2. He's essentially a fallen hero, originally seeking money and fame in feudal Japan as a mercenary. Upon discovering his power (not being able to die) and with the assistance of the time warped Hiro, he becomes a great legend, the name of which I am blanking on. His motivation, outside of the obvious fame and fortune, is to also win the heart of the Japanese princess (or something like that) Yaeko, whom Hiro has taken an eye for as well (admittedly, he tries to restrain himself.) While its not exactly a big focus, Adam really does love Yaeko quite a bit.

Together, Adam and Hiro start doing tasks that will make Adam a legend in the future. Everything looks good, until Yaeko fucks everything up. While Adam really hasn't done anything wrong other than maybe being white, Yaeko decides she isn't really feeling Adam and makes a move on Hiro. After Hiro saves her from an explosion, she starts making out with him. Adam, who was worried they were dead finds them, and promptly overreacts, betraying his allies and capturing Hiro and Yaeko. Everything leads up to a borderline suicidal Adam and a reasonably upset Hiro duking it out.



This is what the fight looked like:




Annoyingly, Hiro wins. He has an emotional, poorly written goodbye scene with Yaeko which was probably intended to be romantic but was just boring and made me even angrier that Adam hadn't beheaded Hiro. After this, he returns to the future, where Adam, still alive and looking good, promptly kills his father, George Takai. Vengeful and embittered by his lost love, Adam attempts to destroy humanity via a virus. Hiro stops him, and since he can't just decapitate him, buries him alive, where he will die then reanimate for all eternity. Apparently, ruining his never-ending life once was not enough for Hiro.

The thing that really peeves me about all this is that Adam really didn't seem that evil. The transformation was all very sudden and even in the present day, he seemed like a pretty nice guy, if you take out his justified anger at the human race. If Hiro just hadn't messed up so badly none of that stuff would have happened and yet Hiro is played off to be this amazing self sacrificing legend who gave up the love of his life out of nobility. Neither was in the right, but Hiro was treated way too well in this case whereas Adam got a shaft of epic proportion. I get why Adam is pissed. Hiro deserved some kind of retribution for his actions. Whether he meant to or not Hiro seduced Yaeko, technically another man's woman and then Adam is somehow played off as in the wrong just because he got mad about it? Bullshit.

I hope Adam gives Hiro his comeuppance.

I imagine it like this:

Hiro comes back from France to get batteries for his magical tracking device. When he enters his office, he hears grunting noises from his spiny chair. Hiro says "Who's there?"

The chair slowly spins to face him. Hiro's sister is completely naked and is riding the pantless Adam, who simply says "Hello Carp... Looks like we're even now".

He then explains that he punched through the coffin and dug his way to freedom, ala Kill Bill Part 2. He also decides to become a good guy and joins the Bennett/Sylar team of awesome and sexy.

Yep... That's what's gonna happen.


Ah, knowing my luck he'll be dug up and freed only to die in a humiliating fashion and I will once again have cursed a well written character by declaring him to be my favorite.

Freaking Awesome Phone Call

I spoke to Rob today for the first time since he left for boot camp nine weeks ago. He sounded good. His advanced training (or specialized... I don't actually remember which it is called) just started and as a result, he has time to do things like buy a cell phone.

He's been made a platoon leader so his voice was kind of shot from yelling at his subordinates. We talked for about an hour. He's developed a bit of a potty mouth (something he actually apologized for) which is really funny. See last winter, we were at his house and for whatever reason (I think I opened the door while he was using the toilet) Steve Pell decided to spray tooth paste all over me. It would have been hilarious if I hadn't had a leather jacket on. Leather and Crest don't mix well. Naturally, I start swearing my brains out and yelling at everyone in sight because I am the least subtle angry person ever. Rob got mad at me about swearing in his house, so I cussed him out too. I cooled off about twenty minutes later and apologized to everyone (minus Steve) but Rob was still a little ticked off about my language.

I counted 19 F bombs in one minute from him, today. Bravo, Robbikins, bravo.

We should probably drop that nick name when he comes back to something a bit more appropriate. Like Godzilla, or Badass McKillguy. Or maybe he'll just forever be Little Robbikins. That nickname was only ever really fitting one time. Steve, Rob and myself decided to go on a little car trip to Rhode Island the day before I returned to school last spring break. We left at around 9 PM. Around midnight, we stopped for gas. Steve noted that Robert was asleep in the back seat. Upon further investigation, we discovered he was using this sailor doll I kept in the back of my car as a pillow and had tucked his arms into his sweatshirt. He looked like he was 5 years old. It was quite the sight. We got out and filled up the car. Then we rocked it a bit, but Rob didn't wake up till we got to Denny's for a late night dinner an hour later.

Anyway, he comes back in 13 weeks. I cannot wait.

Eddie Watches V for Vendetta, Gets Annoyed

I watched V for Vendetta the other night. It was around midnight and my roommate was snoring and I couldn't sleep so I figured "why not?" I mean it was a birthday present and I hadn't seen it since it came out.

Upon viewing it, I remembered: This is quite possibly the single most overrated shitfest of a movie ever made.

The setting is a surprisingly dull Britain in the near future, where random sleazy British people will try to arrest/rape you if you are out late and masked men will save you before blowing up historically landmarks with to the beat of some classical tunes. Sounds great, right? Wrong. The characters were so annoying and self righteous that by the end, I was actually thinking how great it would be if the evil government won. I wanted both Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving to die painfully by the end of it. Sadly, only Weaving did. Did I spoil that for you? Too bad. Its not worth watching. The graphic novel wasn't that good either, but it wasn't as full of itself as this garbage. I think the overall message was that we shouldn't let the government take over every aspect of our freedom and that if we do nothing and let fear rule our lives, the world will turn to shit. Or something like that, I kind of just made that up on the spot as I was too busy trying to figure out how so many people enjoyed this porcupine diarrhea of a movie.

The only redeeming factor was the subplot with the badass detective. The whole movie should have just been him solving mysteries and fucking hot chicks. That would have been ten out of ten stars. But nope. They have to have a blatant 1984 ripoff where a douche bag with a speech impediment and a Guy Fawkes mask runs around with knives acting like a giant condescending prick while occasionally fencing with an empty suit of armor or frying eggs.

His courtship of Natalie Portman was awkward as hell to watch, too. So let me get this straight: He's a fearless, renegade government experiment that spent years and years in a prison where he was made test subject to God knows what kind of torture. Not only that, he's public enemy number one of a tyrannical, relentless government of shadows and evil and has been known to single handedly beat the ever loving crap out of security forces and take over tv stations, yet somehow, somehow, he doesn't have the balls to make a legitimet romantic move on the blundering and bumbling woman whose life he saved multiple times? Is he a badass or a giant pussy? Make up your mind writers, he can't be blowing up government buildings one day then struggling to confess his feelings the next. Not even Peter Parker is that inconsistent.

V is one fucked up dude. He saves Evey (Portman) from the evil cops who just killed her portly, gay tv host friend who made fun of their leader on his show, only to imprision her in his basement where he shaves her head, starves her, tortures her, and worst of all makes her read from some crazy lesbians diary (as someone who has been forced to read numerous lesbian Livejournals I can assure you that this is beyond cruel and unusual punishment). When he finally gets bored of this, he lets the poor girl go, making up some half-assed excuse about how he needed to be sure she was ready (for what?), then gets upset when she (very reasonably) storms out of his house, after dramitically getting very wet in the rain. This part was a little confusing. I wasn't actually sure how much time had passed in between the uninspired and way over the top "God is in the Rain" bit and her actually leaving. She's suddenly dry and in a decent set of clothes, but her hair is still shaved and she still looks starved. No excuse there but poor direction.

I think I figured out my problem with this movie. All of the alleged "good guys" are boring assholes that you can't help but root against. And the ones that aren't (the Detective and the portly gay guy) are either pushed to the side or flat out killed.

I remember seeing the trailer and thinking "This movie is going to fucking rock". It made it look like the entire movie was going to be nothing but fight scenes and explosions. Three fights in the entire movie. THREE! And it was well over two hours. That means they showed the majority of the action in the trailer. And they weren't even that good. Fuck you James McTeigue.

The ending was lame as shit as well. It starts off well enough. V kills a bunch of government officials including the president after making some speech about how ideas are bulletproof. This confused me a little bit. V was clearly saying that he is an idea. Going by that logic he shouldn't have been hurt by the bullets. Fortunately, he is full of shit and staggers off to his death after being riddled with them. He would've died sooner, but he was wearing a metal plate underneath his shirt (ala Back to the Future 3). V dies and I start thinking "Well this might not be that terrible." I am sorely mistaken. Evey confesses her love to the dying V and decides to carry out his final wishes: blow up a historical landmark out of spite. The man kept her in his basement for literally months where he starved her and repeatedly tortured her, and now she's in love with him? This is clearly a case of Stockholm syndrome. Its is by no means romantic in anyway. The woman has a clear psychological condition and needs help.

Meanwhile, the detective, who has been doing his job this entire time (unlike apparently everyone else in this movie... Seriously, there is a terrorist planning on blowing up a major government building in London. Where the fuck is James Bond?) and actually manages to figure out V the Douche's plan. He beats Evey, who had tried to resist arrest, into submission and stops the train full of explosions, saving the city countless money and manpower which was used to help its citizens instead. He was then allowed to retire, which he did as one of the most highly decorated police officers in London's history. Evey is then raped and killed in prison by an irate inmate. "Don't Stop Believing" plays through the credits.

Just kidding. That would have been awesome and possibly redeemed the entire movie. Here's what really happens.

The detective finds Evey, but is driven to insanity after taking one look at her shaven head and allows her to follow through with the plan. That is the only explanation for this decision. He had been a good, hardworking man that would never ever let an anarchist prick and his brainwashed pet blow up a historical landmark. He was awesome and Sinhead O'Portman should have died.

I hate this movie.

2/10 stars


Pros: The Detective was fucking cool. Too bad he was only there for maybe a quarter of the movie.
Cons: Everything else.

Eddie Reflects On Sobriety: Why I Am A Shitty Drunk

Remember right before you left for college how you thought it was going to be like that movie Animal House? Nothing but booze and toga parties and hot naked chicks with big titties? Then you got to school and either spent the first two weeks treating it like that before realizing your grades were shit and you had to get your act together, or you found out that its fucking difficult to meet new people when your a self conscious little bitch and found yourself practically crying yourself to sleep at night wondering why God cursed you with an anti-social personality.

For me it was something of a mix. I went to a college on the other side of the states and knew virtually no one. So I did what an other reasonably insecure, sexually frustrated seventeen year old would do: I drank to extremes and had ridiculous, awe inducing adventures. For better or for worse, however, that was only on the weekend. During the week, I studied, went to classes, occasionally ate, maybe played some gamecube here and there, but for the most part I was completely isolated. As soon as Friday hit, I'd find a party, get fucked up, maybe make out with a normally unattractive girl twice my size and wake up the next morning with a headache, inflamed joints, and for some reason a feeling of deep, deep satisfaction. I was living. Or at least I thought I was, which in reality is just as good.

The rest is history. I don't want to bore you with the unattractive details, but for a while I seriously thought the stuff was arsenic.

It was probably for the best too. I didn't need the stuff anymore. I had my shit together. I had my 3.48 gpa. I had a Borders bookstore with the entire Dragonball collection. I spent the rest of the year chilling out there.

Since then I've more or less gotten over my fear of the booze. I'm at a different college too, one much closer to home. I've been here for about a week and a half. The campus is large and poorly designed. My room is tiny. My classes are kind of shitty. The weather makes the room humid and impossible to sleep in. In short, it kind of sucks.

I feel the urge. The urge to just go nuts or whatever. Does that read bad? I bet it does. My friends for the most part don't drink. The ones that do are hesitant toward inviting me to join them due to my er... drunken behavior which for whatever reason scares them despite my insistence that I am an extremely charming drunk. This behavior includes but is not limited to, picking fights with inanimate objects, picking fights with people, picking fights with animals, crying and screaming, vomiting profusely on anything that dares get in my path, chasing rabbits in hope of eating them, hooking up with fat chicks, hooking up with hot chicks, hooking up with my hand in a public place***. The list goes one. Actually, I can see why they wouldn't want to drink with me and I'm fine with it. I'm a dangerous drunk.

Still, I'm bored as shit here. I love my friends but one can only play super smash brothers so long before you get wistful for that Halloween where you made out with that hot Chinese batgirl, or the time you nearly got date-raped by an amazon-like giant.

True story.



***- This list is obviously an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Pothead's Have Zero Logic

My friend told me to read a facebook note by a mutual acquaintance that I will refer to as "Dipshit". It is appropriately entitled "Stupid". It would be less painful to masturbate with sandpaper than read it again, but alas I must sacrifice my own well being to warn the general public. Also, to vent. Jesus Christ people, if the majority believes the same crap as this idiot, man will definately be the cause of their own destruction.

The Note
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=9941264787
(It has since been taken down)


To be perfectly honest, I think there is a legitimate case for legalizing weed, but it is not the one this guy makes. I swear to god, skinning my own penis makes more sense than this shit.

First off, the asshole compares banning marijuana to Jim Crow laws... Yes, you heard me right.

"Think of the Jim crow laws, back when slavery was legal. It seems childish now to think our society at one point was so convinced that african american slavery should be enforced that laws were made and cops enforced them."

Ummm... Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't Jim Crow laws after the Civil War, specifically from 1876-1965? Yes. Yes they were. Slavery was not "legal" at that point, dumbass. These laws, which varied from not being able to interracially marry to blacks not being allowed to sit in the front on buses were all primarily in the south. Wyoming is about as high North as they got. This means that they weren't federal laws. In fact many states didn't have any. Now every state has their own policies on pot, but it is universally illegal.

Also, don't be so harsh on cops just because they arrested you. If there's a law they HAVE to enforce it. Its part of their job. They can't just be like "Well you are selling drugs, but you know I think its okay to so I'm just going to let you go".

Dipshit goes on to say:

"Yup, thats what they thought back then, the way things are must be the right ways. This world where you can get arrested for doing harm to none other then yourself. This world where you can go to jail for your beleifs and doing what you feel is right."

You know, Dipshit some people kill small children because they think God told them to. Are you suggesting that's okay? I guess you're right, people shouldn't go to jail if they kill kids, I mean come on, they thought it was the right thing to do!

Dipshit keeps writing:

"What right does a government have to control what one does to ones self as long as it effects none others?""

Yeah, smoking pot does affect other people, actually. Now if you're a complete orphan and no one cares about you (wouldn't surprise me if Dipshit fit this category) I can see how this would make sense, but unfortunately it does affect anybody you come into contact with. One of my cousins smokes a lot of pot. Whenever I see him, he's always acting like a complete retard and while he seems happy, I have to cope with this for whatever period of time I'm stuck with him. Its actually pretty annoying.

Now he starts talking about alcohol:

"Alcohol is a drug which claims many lives, and has a much more drastic effect then marijuana. Imagine a world where alcohol would be illegal and marijuana legal, sounds ridiculous and stupid doesn't it? A world where if your caught with a beer in your house you could be thrown into a lockup, yet you could smoke a joint on the street, sounds ridiculous doesn't it?"

That happened from 1919 to 1933. It was called Prohibition and it kind of sucked and was eventually repealed.

Moving on...

"If you smoke a joint are you likely to beat up your wife? No... Crash your car? nope... Fall asleep? Maybe... Kill less brain cells then alcohol... Yes! Maybe banging your head against a wall should be illegal, its hurting yourself! maybe you should not be allowed to do it in public, perhaps police officers should arrest you for it, the two should not be any different according to the govt. Why is alcohol legal? Because the majority uses it!"

Actually, smoking pot does impair your driving as its a lot more difficult to focus. And it kills plenty of brain cells as well as damaging your lungs. Seriously, three cannabis cigarettes a day do the same amount of damage to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day... Just throwing it out there. And by the way, banging your head against the wall isn't illegal because common sense dictates against doing it. Still, if someone were loudly and publicly smashing their head in, they'd probably get taken away at some point. Also, alchohol is only truly damaging in excess. A glass of wine isn't going to hurt anyone, hell its allegedly good for you. It takes way less pot to fuck you up.

Finally, Dipshit closes with this:

"Am i honestly the only one whom sees the insanity of to days society? This is only an example of one of the many insanities of it. I don't beleive people should go to jail for hurting themselves, it is honestly a crime against humanity. If anything send them to a psychologist if its actually a problem."


I'm sure all your pothead friends will read this and tell you how brilliant you are because it supports what they do and believe. They'll tell you how smart you are and how fucked up society is and bitch about it for a while.

That doesn't change the fact that people should get arrested for hurting themselves. A single mother with three young kids shouldn't be smoking up just because they're stressed out. Think about how fucked up their kids will be. A middle-upper class suburban kid SHOULD get arrested if he's caught with weed just for being stupid enough to get caught.

Anti-Fan Service

Last year I left for college August 14th. Classes didn't start till the next week and I spent the most part of the time in between being lonely and unhappy. The rest of my first semester in Arizona was pretty much the same. Lonely, isolated, boring. I got along well with my roommate, but we didn't really have to many common interests and I drank way too much.

My third week, I ran into someone I knew from high school, and was invited to a party. I don't remember any of the night, but I do remember being woken up the next morning by some girl I had never met before in a room I had never seen and being kicked out because her parents were coming the in the next half hour. Hung over, I stumbled into the elevator room. The elevator was broken and my phone wasn't getting any reception. To make matters worse the door locked behind me. After about an hour of loudly knocking on the door, someone finally opened it and I left through the fire escape.

Now you might be thinking "holy crap, that's a fucking hilarious story" as people commonly do when they hear about someone doing incredibly stupid shit when they're drunk. That sort of thing happened very typically that semester. Five days a week, I was a quiet, studious freshman. On Friday and Saturday, I did incredibly stupid things and didn't remember any of it in the morning. This became a routine.

After a good three months, I was able to return to the east coast for Thanksgiving. That was what I consider the end of first semester. There was a 13 day period after that where I had to go back but it was really nothing. That was my first trip home and I won't ever forget the relief I felt after getting out of the plane and seeing my parents and walking back into my house and into my old room. Great feeling.

I spent an entire school year waiting for this. Umass Amherst. None of this "its just over the horizon" crap, its only a few hours away.

So this is it.
College Semester One 2: Academia's Revenge!
Different time. Different place. Different people.
Here we go...

Nothing to See Here

I really like driving at night. You don't really have to worry about traffic and you can just space out and listen to music. You think a lot more. Not really about anything in particular. You don't have meaningful revelations about the nature of life or anything. Its just a nice time to let your mind wander. That sounds awful doesn't it, but when else do you really get that chance.

Marathoned Disney movies today. All were decent. Said goodbye to a bunch of people. Not as decent. Till November, I suppose.

2 days and counting...

Highlights

I think the highlight of this summer was easily the trip to Florida. The whole thing oozed cliche "thing I will remember when I'm old" feelings. Two more days of this, then its back to the books. Back to waking up at an AM time. Back to alcohol. Back to... Well I'm not going back to Arizona. I guess that's a plus. There were other good things. Filming, obviously. My cousins wedding. Comic Books. Driving Christina back a forth from Chelmsford like the bitch I am. It was all a lot of fun.

I got a new ipod. That's sort of cool. Took forever to install the new software for. I thought my laptop was going to crap out but it didn't which was good... Obviously.

Filming is done for about a month. Maybe less. We'll see how long it takes to get settled in.

Insert Clever and/or Witty Title Here

Five days until I move in. Not looking forward to it.





The time feels like it moves extra slow these days. I don't mind. I don't do too much nowadays. When I'm not filming, I'm cruising the internet. Occasionally I find some sort of a comic or a novel to read, or maybe I'll watch a baseball game. Every now and then, I'll even get outside and play soccer but for the most part, off days are lazy and pretty much meaningless. That's actually pretty much what the last 3 months have been. That's how I like my summers. Its gonna suck when I have to work during them. I suppose I could become a teacher but that would blow some serious horse cock. We still have a few scenes to shoot, but it looks like we're almost done.








My minds been drifting a lot lately and I'm remembering a surprising amount of dreams. I wonder what that means... Just kidding. You really think I'd write about shit like that? Fuck you. Not you, the asshole behind you.



.

70 Percent Done

Shot 8 hours in the high school today. Alex Levine easily surpassed his past performance, but Steve Pell may actually wind up being the showstopper with a very emotional yet beleivable permormance. It'll be very interesting to see these after the cutting board.

We will be shooting again tomorrow, and most likely on Friday and Sunday as well. Its really starting to wind down and I could not be happier with the way things are going. Jeff's scenes are tomorrow and this could potentially be disastrous, but we will see. We will definitely see.

In other news, I really hope the Red Sox stop pitching Cla Bucholtz. He kind of sucks and loses pretty much every time he pitches.

That Time Again

Sam's gone.
Kevin's gone.
Steff's gone.
People are leaving faster than a white supremacist at an indie film fest. Great. We still have scenes to shoot.

We finished Sam's two days ago. Barely. It took longer than it should have and ended with Christina having a gun literally shatter over her head. This was not intentional. It was even in the script. Nothing even remotely close. As you can imagine, me and Victor were reasonably pissed. Me over the fact that our lead actress, and a very good friend of mine was just potentially hospitalized. Victor for that reason as well as the fact that the gun he had already fixed about 4 times that night was completely broken beyond repair. Hilarity did not ensue. Fortunately, Christina was not hurt beyond a bump on her head and we didn't really need the gun anymore, so disaster was averted.

Kevin's scenes are going to have to wait till November. We got through most of them but there are two more that are going to be shot during Thanksgiving break or later. He left with my copy of Batman Begins and the first two volumes of Y the Last Man. Dick...

Steff... Well she isn't in the movie. We went to Walden Pond like two days before she left. It was nice. Really warm. We should've brought bathing suits. Oh well, next time. Its kind of easy to forget that we live right next to some huge tourist traps, between the pond and all the revolutionary war stuff. That being said, its got to be a huge let down for people who are expecting to see some kind of a huge spectacle or whatever. There are the remains of the dude's cabin there, which really just amounts to a huge pile of rocks and a chimney. Other that that, its just a lake with some trails. Not like that is a bad thing. Sometimes pretty scenery is all you need for a good time. And it was just that.

I probably should stop typing now before I start getting wistful and annoying.